Attend any Indian party and you will most likely find this popular rice dish served with all the other Indian cuisine items. Rice recipes are a favorite of mine. You may also have a look at some other Indian rice recipes here – Egg Fried Rice, Easy Veg Pulao Recipe, Easy Paneer Pulao, Paneer Tawa Pulao. Jeera is the Indian name for Cumin seeds. It is commonly used in Indian cuisine as a spice for its flavor and aroma. It is also used in traditional medicine for its therapeutic properties. Belief in these benefits of Jeera and the splendid taste of the dish has led to the popularity of Jeera rice. Jeera rice is often substituted for fried rice. It is much simpler to make since it only has cumin and not any assorted veggies that go in regular fried rice. Basmati is long-grained white rice available easily in any Indian store and I believe nowadays in any other kind of retail store too. It is famed for its long grains, and mild aroma, and the grains hold very well when you prepare any kind of fried rice, pulao, or biriyani.
It allows the grains to hydrate and become fuller and elongated It also decreases the cooking time and thus reduces loss of aromatic properties.
End result is fluffier, elongated, and aromatic rice.
Wash rice in cold water to get rid of excess starch on the exterior of the grains Soak the washed rice in water for at least 30 minutes or an ideal 2 hours if you can plan ahead. Drain the soaked rice well in a colander Heat ghee and add the spices – cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf, green chilli and cumin. Sauté for a minute and then add the soaked rice. Toss it well for a couple of minutes and add water to submerge it. Add Salt. Cover it and let it come to a boil. On low flame let it cook for 10 minutes. Check the level of water until none is left. Let it rest for 10 minutes and serve it.
Soak rice for a good 2 hours for an optimum result Do not over sauté the spices. Spices such as cumin tend to burn easily and spoil the taste of the dish they are used in Important to toss the rice well along with the spices so that the ghee coats each grain of rice. When you notice there is little water left after cooking the rice for around 10 minutes, switch off and leave it to rest. The residual heat will take care of getting rid of any excess water. Since the volume of rice is high and there is some good tossing involved, go for a deep bottom pan or a Dutch oven.
Jeera rice is often substituted for or accompanies white rice in Indian buffets. Therefore you can have any Indian gravy curry with this like Coconut Chicken Curry, Indian Mutton Curry, Restaurant Style Matar Paneer, No Oil Chicken Curry, or Dhaba Style Egg Curry. While consuming it later, just let it rest outside for a while and microwave it. Leaving it outside for at least 30 minutes allows the overall rice to come to room temperature and makes heating easy and uniform.
